1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to art surfaces as used traditionally by artists, but also in modern applications whereby an artist may attach or fasten sculptural elements or uncommon grounds to an art surface.
2. Description of Prior Art
Heretofore artists used fabric stretched over frames or boards laminated with various materials for painting with oils and acrylics. In today's market, there is a demand for an art surface available in large and small sizes to which media other than, but including paint, can be applied or fastened. These other media run the range from expanding foams, thick plasters, to sheet goods, and found objects. The attachment and use of such media requires an art surface strong enough to support such media. The art surface must remain dimensionally stable, yet strong, and provide the artist with liberal access to the rear of the art surface for easy installation of fasteners.
The conventional stretched fabric will provide the artist with a large, seamless surface. This surface does little to provide the artist with a structure to which the artist can securely attach fastening hardware. Fabric will not withstand the aggressive use of scrapers, or knives used to intentionally cut into the surface. The flexible nature of stretched fabric, along with the frabric's tendency to expand and contract with humidity, does not provide a stable surface for thick plasters, expanding foams, and the like.
Canvas boards are of a more rigid nature than canvas, but are prone to bowing once the media has been applied. They have no seperate mechanism of support and rely on the frames into which they are placed for stability. Once installed, there is nothing to prevent the inevitable bowing. Canvas boards are constructed of cardboard and canvas and do not provide a substantial structure into which an artist may screw or bolt objects.
Other types of art boards have been proposed, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,065,596 to Groody (1977) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,366 to Tyler (1980).
Groody's patent addresses the issue of providing a rigid surface while retaining the flexibility of touch of the artist's brush to the canvas. Many of today's artists find the flexibility of canvas annoying, especially with the more common use of mixed media in painting, such as oil crayons, markers, pencils, knives, scrapers, and any medium which requires pressure to apply. The stability of this surface is subject to a stiffener to which all else is laminated. The stiffener has no structural support to prevent it from warping or twisting. The backside of the board provides no standoffs where bolts, nuts, screws and fasteners can penetrate without interfering with the wall on which the surface is hung, or on which the surface is laid. In addition, the surface strength is limited to the outer layer of paper or fabric laminated to the substructure.
Tyler's invention does address the issue of warping and twisting. Its honeycomb substructure provides a rigid board, but is not of a design conducive to penetration of hardware at random locations. The paintable surface is a series of laminated papers constructed to prevent delamination with the application of art liquids, such as watercolors. This surface is clearly for lightweight materials, such as paintings, watercolors, and the mounting of photographs. It would be unsuitable for applications of heavy media such as plaster. As in the case with Groody's patent, further structure to allow the surface to stand off from the wall would be required for the protrusion of hardware through the surface.
Other types of rigid art surfaces in public use are usually hammered together by the end user. They are normally a sheet of 1/4 inch plywood nailed onto a rectangular frame of wood 2.times.2s. This basic design offers no resistance to twisting or warping. The larger sizes more commonly used, are more likely to experience this deformity.